Manry v. State

621 S.W.2d 619
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 23, 1981
Docket61068
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 621 S.W.2d 619 (Manry v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Manry v. State, 621 S.W.2d 619 (Tex. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION

ONION, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for possession of hydromorphone, a controlled substance. After the jury found appellant guilty and the State proved a prior burglary conviction alleged for enhancement of punishment, the jury assessed punishment at twenty (20) years’ confinement.

The evidence adduced at trial showed that on November 30, 1977, Houston police officer C. T. Black was working in an undercover capacity, and was inside the office of a Houston physician, Dr. Robert Hennessy. This was apparently part of an investigation of Dr. Hennessy based on belief that he was dispensing prescriptions for controlled substances without any legitimate purpose of medical treatment. Black testified that he observed appellant in the doctor’s office from 11:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. that day, and appellant appeared to be under the influence of some type of drug. Black left the doctor’s office and reported his observations to his superior, Captain Alsup, chief of the Narcotics Division.

Officers Charles Robertson and A. J. Hruzek were conducting undercover surveillance of the same doctor’s office that day from their vehicle parked outside the office. The officers observed as people would enter the office every 15 minutes or so, and leave 15 or 20 minutes thereafter, carrying what appeared to be prescription blanks. The sign at the office in question indicated that it was the office of Dr. Ezra Wells, a “Doctor of Psychology.” Uniformed officers stopped two vehicles leaving the office and found that the occupants had prescriptions.

Based on this information, Robertson also contacted Captain Alsup, and at approximately 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., Alsup, Robertson, Hruzek, and several other officers entered the office. As they entered, Dr. Hennessy was by the door, apparently about to leave, and there were four to six other people in the room, which was a doctor’s waiting room. Captain Alsup announced his name and that he was a police officer. According to Robertson, Alsup also ordered everyone to “freeze” and said that everyone was going to be searched. At this point, everyone “scrambled,” and appellant began to move behind a counter. Officer Hruzek brought him back around the counter. Hruzek then conducted a search of appellant’s person, finding a bottle of pills, a hypodermic syringe, and some money rolled up inside appellant’s socks. Appellant was taken into custody. Robertson stated that the occupants of the room were told as soon as the officers entered that they were under arrest.

L. B. Alsup testified that he was a Houston police captain assigned to the narcotics division at the time of the incident in question. He received information from Robertson and Hruzek that prescriptions, presumably illegal ones, were being written at the office they were staking out. Alsup went to the location and with eight other officers entered the office at approximately 6:30 p.m. He saw six people standing in the lobby, and announced his name and that he was with the Houston Police Department, displayed his official identification, and said that he wanted to talk to them. He was approached by a man identifying himself as Dr. Hennessy. At this time, the six people present began circling around in different directions, as if looking for a way to get out. All of the occupants of the room, including Dr. Hennessy, were searched and subsequently arrested. Alsup was present when officer Hruzek searched appellant.

*621 Charlotte Huffman, chemist for the Houston Police Department, testified that she performed chemical tests to identify the drugs found on appellant’s person. She determined that there were a number of tablets containing hydromorphone, several tablets containing methaqualone, and several tablets containing phenmetrazine. She also found residue of hydromorphone in the syringe.

For the defense, Dr. Hennessy testified that appellant was a patient of his, who had first come to him for treatment of gunshot wounds to his legs. After having treated him for some time, Dr. Hennessy employed him for “general help and cleanup.” He stated that he had prescribed Dilaudid, a commercial preparation of hydromorphone, for appellant’s pain. The prescription was for thirty tablets of four milligrams each, to be taken orally every three to four hours as needed. He thought that he also had prescribed methaqualone for appellant as a sedative, as well as phenmetrazine. He stated that appellant was carrying these items in his socks because the shirt and pants he was wearing at the time had no pockets. He had no explanation for the presence of the syringe on appellant’s person, but stated that he did not see anything taken from appellant other than one pill bottle. He further stated that all three drugs had been prescribed for appellant as part of Dr. Hennessy’s medical treatment and that each was prescribed for a valid medical reason. He denied that prescribing the taking of all three drugs at the same time was unsound medical practice. Another witness called by appellant was the medical records custodian of Ben Taub hospital, who sponsored into evidence records establishing the fact of appellant’s gunshot wounds.

In rebuttal, the State called Don Strickland, chief of the organized crime section of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, who testified that Dr. Hennessy had a bad reputation in the community for truth and veracity. Also testifying for the State was Dr. Martin Schide, a physician and surgeon who disputed the testimony of Dr. Hennessy that prescribing the three drugs for simultaneous use was good medical practice. He stated specifically that metha-qualone, commercially known as Quaalude, was a sedative, while Preludin, a commercial preparation of phenmetrazine, was a stimulant, and that prescribing a sedative and a stimulant along with a narcotic drug such as Dilaudid, or hydromorphone, would be an unusual combination of drugs. He also stated that Preludin, formerly prescribed as an appetite suppressant, had fallen into disrepute in the medical community due to its habit-forming tendencies, and was not commonly prescribed any more.

In his first ground of error, 1 appellant claims that the hydromorphone and the other items admitted in evidence against him were the fruits of an illegal search, because the warrantless entry of the officers into the doctor’s office was unlawful. Appellant offers no citation of authorities for this proposition, but merely concludes that the officers had sufficient probable cause to support the issuance of a search warrant and sufficient time to secure one, and that their failure to secure one rendered the entry illegal.

Under Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), a defendant who seeks to suppress evidence of crime must show that some personal Fourth Amendment right of his was implicated in the police actions leading to seizure of the evidence. See also Lewis v. State, 598 S.W.2d 280 (Tex.Cr.App. 1980). In other words, he must show that he himself had some “legitimate expectation of privacy” that was improperly intruded upon by agents of the government. In United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
621 S.W.2d 619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manry-v-state-texcrimapp-1981.